Shortly after Ilan Greenberg’s article about Mark Seidenfeld appeared on the World Wide Web, several web logs interested in Central Asian affairs and/or human rights started writing about his case. As one would expect on the internet, these blogs are from a varied group of authors, and they reach widely different readerships.
Eurasia News Monitor’s Global Geopolitics News , a blog that collects Central Asian news of note for global strategists and intelligence professionals, started the Web-log interest with an April 23rd link to the Mark’s case as featured in the International Herald Tribune.
On April 24, 2007, Houston lawyer Tom Kirkendall focused on Mark Seidenfeld in his Houston: Clear Thinking blog with a post on “Criminalizing Business in Kazakhstan.” The blog’s audience is one of Houston’s academics, businesspersons, and professional communities.
On April 25, 2007, two blogs wrote about his case:
“We can’t talk about the rule of law anymore!” In a post at WhirledView, Patricia Lee Sharpe, a foreign affairs veteran, was concerned that Mark Seidenfeld would not be aided by the United States because of lost moral authority in the U.S. over human rights.
The Foreign Policy Association’s Central Asia Weblog article featured the IHT version of Greenberg’s article with other references that highlight his situation in “Trial delay for telecom exec Mark Seidenfeld.” In this article, Bonnie Boyd noted that ensuring media freedom means extending human rights protection to media service providers. The FPA is a U.S.-based non-profit engaged in promoting awareness of the American public in foreign affairs.
In three days, the blogosphere has brought Mark Seidenfeld’s precarious position to the attention of: global strategists and intelligence analysts; Houston lawyers, business and professional cadres, including those of the oil industry; the international aid community; and a general audience within the United States.
This blog intends to continue to provide references for:
bloggers and other journalists,
rule-of-law experts,
Central Asia’s foreign direct investment community,
business people contemplating investment in Kazakhstan,
and human rights advocates.
In short, this blog will promote education and activism with those who have interest in Mark Seidenfeld’s case and the issues which are attendant upon it.
More news round-ups are forthcoming, as we get caught up on media interest concerning this important case.
